Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report entitled Dying in Poverty, published by Marie Curie in November 2024, what steps she is taking to tackle the levels of people dying in poverty in Liverpool.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has noted the recommendations made in the report, and values Marie Curie as a key stakeholder which engages with us constructively in this area. The primary way the Department supports people nearing the end of life is through special benefit rules which are known as the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit.
For many years, the Special Rules applied to people who have 6 months or less to live, they have now been changed so they apply to people who have 12 months or less to live. Changes to the Special Rules mean that thousands of people nearing the end of life are now able to claim fast-tracked financial support from the benefits system six months earlier than they were able to previously.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on (a) exemptions for and (b) flexibility in (i) sponsored visa and (ii) skilled workers visa guidance staff in her Department.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State, and ministers, regularly meet with Cabinet and ministerial colleagues, regarding a range of matters.
DWP takes the welfare of its staff very seriously and continues to provide a range of support to colleagues employed on time limited visas who are impacted by the uplift to Skilled Worker salary thresholds for sponsorship introduced in April 2024.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in which of her Department's offices there are staff employed on sponsored visas who will not meet the salary threshold at the end of the current visa term.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP currently sponsors 169 employees.
The number of DWP staff that are currently sponsored by the department who will not meet the salary threshold at the end of their current visa is unknown. Each case will depend on the individuals’ specific circumstances, and the Home Office legislation at the time their current visa expires.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in her Department are on sponsored visas; and how many will not meet the skilled worker visa salary threshold at the end of their visa term.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP currently sponsors 169 employees.
The number of DWP staff that are currently sponsored by the department who will not meet the salary threshold at the end of their current visa is unknown. Each case will depend on the individuals’ specific circumstances, and the Home Office legislation at the time their current visa expires.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in her Department are required to pay the NHS Health Surcharge.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold the data requested.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish (a) staff turnover, (b) the number of new recruits and (c) the number of vacancies in her Department in each of the last three months.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
a) The annual turnover rate for DWP ending in the last three months is 7.0% in September, 6.8% in October and 6.6% in November. Annual end of year turnover rates are published in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts.
b) DWP has had 2,063 new recruits between 2 September 2024 and 30 November 2024.
c) DWP has advertised 170 recruitment campaigns for up to 2147 roles.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of not increasing Local Housing Allowance rates in 2025-26 on the number of households requiring temporary accommodation.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises that homelessness levels are too high and there are a range of contributing factors. We will look carefully at these issues as we develop our strategy for ending homelessness.
When reviewing the Local Housing Allowance (LHA), the Secretary of State considered a range of factors, including the private rental situation, the Government’s goals and missions, and the wider fiscal context and engaged with MHCLG.
DWP currently spends around £30bn annually on housing support and the April 2024 increase to LHA costs approximately £7bn over 5 years.
For those who need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. DHPs can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs.
As announced at the Budget, funding for homelessness services is increasing next year by £233m compared to this year (2024/25). The increased spending will help to prevent rises in the number of families in temporary accommodation and help to prevent rough sleeping. This brings the total spend to nearly a billion pounds in 2025/26.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of surveys undertaken by the Food Foundation Food entitled Food insecurity tracking, published in July 2024, on a potential link between ethnicity and food insecurity.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling poverty in all its forms and this includes tackling food insecurity by reducing mass dependence on emergency food parcels. Good work can significantly reduce the chances of people failing into poverty so will be the foundation of our approach.
The Child Poverty Taskforce has started urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring 2025. We will harness all available levers across government to bring about an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, as part of a 10-year strategy for lasting change.
Our jobcentres support our customers, including in ethnic minority groups, to move into employment by providing access to mainstream services and bespoke programmes that are designed to be flexible to individual needs. We are also taking targeted action in 20 places with a high ethnic minority employment gap. The Get Britain Working White Paper, to be set out in the Autumn, will develop measures to reduce inactivity and help people to find better paid and more secure jobs.
Alongside this, we have committed to reviewing Universal Credit by listening to the full range of views on potential changes, so that our social security system is fit for purpose. As announced in the Autumn Budget, a new Fair Repayment Rate will be introduced from April 2025, reducing Universal Credit deductions overall cap from 25% to 15%. This measure will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year.
We also announced that, £1 billion, including Barnett impact, will be invested to extend the Household Support Fund in England by a full year until 31 March 2026, on top of the six months already announced, and to maintain Discretionary Housing Payments in England and Wales.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the child poverty taskforce plans to make an assessment of the potential impact of furniture poverty on families in social rented homes.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Poverty Taskforce has started urgent work to publish the Child Poverty Strategy in Spring and will explore all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty. The taskforce is exploring a range of metrics and will make decisions alongside the publication of the strategy in Spring 2025.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the end of the Household Support Fund on the number of people in poverty.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made of the impact of the Household Support Fund on poverty.
The Government announced funding to extend the Household Support Fund for a further 6 months, from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025.
An additional £421 million has been provided to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund in England, plus funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion, as usual. The objective of the Household Support Fund is to provide crisis support to vulnerable households in England in most need with the cost of essentials such as food and energy.
The Household Support Fund is intended to cover a wide range of low-income households in need, including households with children of all ages, pensioners, unpaid carers, care leavers and disabled people, larger households, single-person households, and those struggling with one-off financial shocks or unforeseen events.
Local Authorities have the discretion to design their own local schemes within the parameters of the guidance and grant determination that the Department for Work and Pensions have set out for the fund. This is because they have the ties and the knowledge to best determine how support should be provided in their local communities.